With the deadline passed, Saucon teachers ask for extension to vote on contract

As the deadline approached Friday afternoon for the Saucon Valley Education Association to accept the school district's latest contract offer, union members asked for an extension allowing them to vote on the offer next week.

In response, district officials said they are sticking with their deadline and have pulled the Feb. 26 offer, which will now be replaced with a less generous proposal from the fall.

"Currently, our union president [Theresa Andreucci] is out of the state, our chief negotiator will be in Hershey with students, and our members need time to make arrangements for a contract vote," said the union's chief negotiator Rich Simononis in a prepared statement Friday.

Because of these circumstances, the union wants to vote on the offer at a membership meeting Wednesday, he said.

The union met this past Wednesday, but no votes were taken.

About 135 of the union's 180 members were present at that meeting, Simononis had said.

"The union knew about this since Feb. 26," said district labor attorney Jeff Sultanik, adding there "really is no reason" why the union could not have voted before Friday's deadline.